Volt
Ben Richardson, often more known by his handle 'Volt' is a British neo mercenary and bounty hunter who is one of the core members of the VALER organisation, known for his unusual personality and somewhat unstable behaviour. He is in a relationship with the Aeon prince Anri Sera and is openly bisexual. Volt is the arch nemesis of magi and mezzite user Zeroth. History The Early Years Born in the seaside town of Hastings in England Ben had a sickly childhood and was bulled because of his heterochromia, with one eye electric blue and the other an unusual crimson colour, they were in fact to be a precursor to his neonism on his 13th birthday. Even before his powers activated Ben's birthday was a little odd, a gift from his grandmother and his parents; a 18th century edo-period katana named Kaminari, which apparently had origins with a travelling relative who ended up in Japan during the 1730's. His electrical power first manifested during his birthday party in Bexhill swimming pool where three uninvited guests; bullies from his school, crashed the party and almost drowned him, the trauma activated his neones and the boy emitted a pulse of electricity that killed the three boys. Luckily for others Ben and his bullies were the only people in the water at the time, however his best friend Brendan was shocked as he barely dipped his foot in the shallow end, blowing him backwards, but not killing him. The deaths were blamed in faulty, exposed wiring from a pool light but Ben was unconscious for days, but was quickly given the all clear and sent home, where he revealed to his friend his ability to create electricity, fearing nevertheless he would be terrified. Brendan, however was fascinated, and even more so when Ben showed Brendan another new power which enabled him to fly, by levitating from his bedroom floor. Ben spent meany months being paranoid and being terrified of his own powers, after realising he had killed three boys, with neos still unheard of at the time Ben had no idea if he was the only one of his kind, but Brendan truly helped him stay grounded. It was in fact Brendan who suggested to Ben the idea of becoming a 'superhero' in the first place, eventually the two became Rebel and Blades, with Brendan using his impressive rollerblading skills and honing them with unique martial arts practices that the two began to learn, Ben deciding to take lessons in kendo and kenjutsu, inspired by his sword. Ben later changed his code-name to Volt and the duo began patrolling their hometown in homemade outfits for a few years, encountering other unusual such as Heatwave and Fume. When they were 15 Ben's aggressiveness began to drive the two apart and Brendan saw a dark side of his friend he didn't like, soon Brendan had moved another town as his father moved jobs shortly before Ben joined the local college to study graphics and art. The Dark Year When he was 16 Ben grew depressed and began to drink and smoke marijuana, having little real friends, he stopped paroling the town for almost a year and tried to commit suicide by flying up as high as he could, until he could barely breath, but when his heart stopped his body somehow mysteriously restarted it, Volt fell, unable to concentrate on flying, and he began to have hallucinations, seeing dragons in the clouds and hear a voice in the thunder, seemingly passing through a stormy vortex a swallowed by a gaping dragon maw. The boy closed his eyes, but when he opened them again there was nothing below him but ocean and managed to stabilise himself and slow down enough that he crashed into the sea relatively safe, however the strange event made him feel odd, it changed him and he decided to take another year at college. The College Years When Volt was 17 he met James Greenwood as an American from New York and the two became good friends, especially after Ben saw James use powers of his own, superstrength and limited invisibility and got back into vigilantism for a while, with James choosing the name 'Fantom'. Whilst admitting that college was a massive waste of time for them both began formulating ideas to start up a business in America that they could both benefit from, finding the idea of non-paid vigilantism and 'superheroism' unrealistic. Before they set their plans in motion Ben chose to 'come out' to his parents, which utterly shocked them, but kept the idea of using their powers to fight crime in James' hometown Harlem, in the Big Apple herself, instead claimed they were going to start a band. Indeed, this was not total lie, James could drum and Ben had been playing the guitar as long as he had been practising kendo, Volt's sword would have to remain in the UK until he could sneak it across the ocean. Before then went Fantom had an idea of 'testing' their powers and skills and first headed to New Mexico to catch a few criminals before heading to New York. Their exercise gained them experience and worked in their favour. The Mavericks Foundation After first arriving in New York by the time they were both 19, James took over his great uncle's old betting shop in a side-alley the Bronx and they began to set up shop and Volt attained an American work visa. Around this time various government agencies were secretly monitoring them. Personality Volt's personality has changed considerably from his early days as a bullied schoolboy, growing from a wary and paranoid kid to a somewhat aggressive and typically 'anti-hero' man, Volt's hatred of bullies and refusal to follow orders has made it difficult for him to form relationships, or work as a team, especially after the fall of Mavericks and the Manhattan Incident, even within VALER he is something of a lone wolf, only truly working well with Anri, and will often still go out and do privet missions. He has grown to be also somewhat 'weird' in a number of ways, ways that Leo and Robin often point to him having severe psychological issues, particularly his enjoyment of fighting and impetuous nature, nevertheless, despite his imposing and at times downright yandre attitude Volt is actually a very caring and highly protective individual, as well as being highly intelligent. Volt loves to mess with people's heads, at this works in his favor during a fight, enabling to think out side the box and use unorthodox methods. Powers and Abilities Volt is a neohuman with a series of ‘n-genes’ or 'neones' that grant him a number of superhuman attributes; Powers Electrical Quintessence: Volt is a neo who can draw upon the subatomic power of the 6th dimension through his own bodies’ molecules, particularly those within his central nervous system; this power is focused around electrons and ions which has granted him the ability to summon massive amounts of electrical energy and control electrical fields without the need to absorb it from exterior sources. This, however also meant that Volt’s immunity to his power was not clearly defined, although his body could channel large amounts of the electricity without harm, what would be a limitless potential was limited by that very unknown factor; if Volt went over his capacity to handle the energy he generated, Volt’s body could be severally damaged, or worse completely vaporise. Since Volt’s nervous system is the source of his power he is inexorably linked to his own powers in ways most other neohumans are not and any form of power cancellation would result in the shutting down of his central nervous system, putting him in a coma-like state or dying altogether. * Electrical Discharges: Volt could channel and unleash bolts and blasts of ultrahigh voltage electricity, either focused through his hands, fists or thrown from his body in general. He could channel it through metal and superheat it or throw off arcs of energy. Volt could form fields of energy around him if his hands were tied and direct it with his mind, or use it for defensive purposes; although he admits he defense is one of his weaknesses as he uses this power so offensively. He can control the amps and voltage of the current he discharges to allow him a number of different types of projection. * Tactile Electromagnetism: He has a limited ability to control metal by electromagnetising it with his own energy by touch; however he would have very little control over the actual structure of the object, limited to slightly bending or lifting the metal, but has used this ability to lift objects as large as buses, boats and passenger jets with all of his effort. Volt has stopped objects as large as buses by catching them in this manner, and can cause bullets to deflect from his skin as soon as they strike him; however this still causes bruising as not all of the kinetic energy is redirected with the EM flux an prefers to uses his reactions and his sword to create sweeping effects as he spins it. * Enhanced Strikes: By shifting the energy inside his body into focus points such as his arms and fists, or his knees and feet, he can increase the potency of his punches and kicks enough so that they can strike with enough force to break concrete and prevent him from injuring himself in the process, allowing him to fight hand-to-hand with super-strong opponents. He can also use tactile electrical attacks such as shocks and paralysing “bites” with his fingers. * Enhanced Reactions and Agility: The electrical activity in his body and brain make his neurokinetic activity extremely fast and responsive, making him an unparalleled opponent in a fight. He can use electricity to increase his running speed but this causes strain on his muscles when used for more than 4 or 5 seconds and only does so in short inter-battle bursts, preferring to rely on his flight power for speed. * Supercharging: He can temporarily increase his strength by flushing his muscular structure with electrical energy, pumping his muscles allowing him to lift varying weights of his standard 5 tonnes up to 15 tonnes at his most energized. When in this mode his body is also highly electrified to the touch and allows him to run at blinding speeds for as long as he can sustain the supercharge as well as automatically increasing his flight speed to hypersonic levels via his ‘propulsion technique. Volt also recalls his senses being particularly heightened for a short time. Afterwards he often feels a degree of pain for up to three days throughout his body and experiences painful spasms and twitches in this recovery time, and Volt rarely uses this ability. * Electrical Immunity: Volt is immune to extremely high voltages of electricity; however as his ability to generate it exists beyond his bodies own generating capacity, which of course he does not know, he must be weary when generating overly-powerful discharges. As of yet there is no voltage that exists from exterior sources that he isn’t immune to, putting his immunity beyond the 300 megavolt range. Electrokinesis: As well as generating electricity, Volt’s central nervous system creates a massive electrical field around him which he can mentally control allowing a deal of influence over his own electricity and exterior electrical energies as well as giving him sensory powers. * Electroreception: He can sense electrical fields via interactions with his own field and can sense the presence of anything, or anyone that possesses such fields. * Electrical Manipulation: Volt can manipulate any electrical energy in his near vicinity via his field, directing its flow or creating electrical constructs from ambient sources, although these are limited in sustainment by his concentration and rarely does so. * Limited Technokinesis: He can cause the activation/deactivation and malfunction of any electronics that he can sense. The device must have a source of electricity within it for Volt to control or at least the ability to hold a charge, but he can act as a battery if he is in physical contact with the device and carefully regulates his power. He is learning to propagate his energy via his field allowing him to charge without being in contact with the object; this may also allow him ranged electromagnetism. Tactile Telekinesis: In addition, Volt can also create a limited tactile-telekinetic field around his body that gives him a number of associated abilities. * Flight: Volt can use this field to levitate and propel himself through the air at supersonic speeds. * Enhanced speed: His flight speed and acceleration were extremely potent, allowing him to accelerate at extreme speeds, in short flits when combined with his electrical powers; his speed is often said in resembling teleportation. He can fly at mach 3.5 but believes he can go faster. * Simulated Strength and Resilience: His field allowed him to lift around 2 tonnes on it's own and protects him from some forms of impact; while he isn't bulletproof by any means, can withstand blunt impacts and the field will dissipate the kinetic force of his own body, especially whilst in motion. Empathy: Volt also has very limited empathic powers allowing him to sense emotion. He has spent many years trying to control it and when it first manifested it allowed him to commune with Taranis, but almost sent him insane. Volt was taught to control his empathy by the assassin Darq but he only did so so that he could consciously turn it off and hates using this power in any capacity as intense nearby emotions can cause him mental pain; this can sometimes make him extremely apathetic. He can, however use it to sense the location of people or animals nearby and only truly uses it form a distance. Taranis Taranis is Volt’s ‘guardian’ to the White Realm, a higher dimensional state of radiant energy that is said to be the true source of energy in the entire universe. Taranis did not contact Volt until his empathy first manifested at the age of 20 and it was later discovered that Taranis was a halfbreed Human/Aeon Dragon who was praised as a God in Bronze Age Europe, with his father being the Aeon Dragon known as Xeus. Taranis was banished to the 6th dimension during ancient battle on Aeos, known by the Aeons as the White Realm, the same dimension Volt’s energy, and the energy of various neohumans comes from. * Telempathic Link: Volt has an empathic link with Taranis, to such a degree that he can receive emotions from him and translated them in to actual words and pictures like a form of empathic telepathy. * Power Restriction: Taranis became Volt’s power regulator and at any time was powerful enough to tone-down Volt’s power if he thought it would damage him, although Volt can fight against it, it would most likely be in vain. * Limited Possession: Taranis is able to possess Volt’s body for a short period, allowing him to talk with others, but had little control over Volt's actions. Limitations and Weaknesses: Curiously, although the potential for Volt’s energy generation is at first realization limitless and almost god-like, it seems to be extremely limited by his own mortal body and mind, and limited also in quantum state to only electrons and positrons rather than all the potential energies of the White Realm. His ability to control and shape this energy is limited by the internal pressure and focus he must maintain to balance generation of energy with making sure he doesn’t go overboard as well as his own emotional state that is, all too often angry and aggressive. Deep down Volt is still very cautious with going “too far” and killing himself with his own power, although he currently seems to know the limits of his body, the lines are not drawn clearly, unlike most neohumans who will simply pass out with over-usage of their power, Volt could very well continue to generate electricity exponentially and, in one of the worst case scenarios not stop until his nervous system shuts down and his link with its source severs or, even worse his rift stays open and the universe is destroyed by an influx of pure energy. Abilities Swordsmanship expert: Volt is trained in kenjutsu and kendo techniques and extremely talented in the use of his katana Kaminari, using it with unbridled skill and speed. Hand-to-hand combatant: Is very skilled in various martial arts styles, mixing the styles of Shaolin Kung Fu with eagle and tiger claw into his own unique brand that he calls Thunderfist. Skilled tracker: His years of bounty hunting gives him an edge in locating targets and gathering infomation. Mercenary: Volt has learned various tactical and fighting skills from being a mercenary, working for governmental, military and privet forces the world over. Musician: He knows how to play the electric guitar and can sing. Artist: Volt is very skilled at drawing and sketching, creating character designs and scifi technology and landscapes as a hobby. No one knew he has such skills and is perhaps the only thing he gets embarrassed about when people ask, and as such tries to keep his art skills a secret. He and Drath are said to be working on a VALER webcomic. Category:Characters Category:Neohumans Category:VALER members Category:Mercenaries Category:Mavericks